Old Timers: The Most Money You Ever Spent For Less Than One MB

Posted:
in AppleOutsider edited January 2014
So, old-timers. I ask: what was the most money you ever spent for less than one MB of memory?



As a kid (ca. 1982) I mowed yards for months to buy a 32KB expansion card for my TI-99/4A (~$200).

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    my father spent 600 $ for 4KB in 1981-1982 , to upgrade the memory of a little sharp pocket computer.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    trumptmantrumptman Posts: 16,464member
    What did the little 512k memory upgrade modules used to cost for the Amiga 500?



    I think I dropped about $150 on that. We still tease my friend who bought the Amiga 500 from me. He was into 3d animation and spent $3200 on a 32 meg memory module.



    Nick
  • Reply 3 of 18




    I can only go back to 1993 or so, Quadra 840AV, 32MB, $1K+/module.



  • Reply 4 of 18
    I updated my SE for $49/MB. it took 4.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    marcukmarcuk Posts: 4,442member
    back in about 93 i remember paying £400 ($700) for 8MB of RAM for my Ensoniq ASR-10 Sampler.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    I love chatting about old technology, and that's probably why I keep a bunch of old junk around. But I didn't buy a computer, much less any electronic gizmos, until about 2000.



    However, I did put some analog "memory" into a 2003 project, which cost about $1.50 in parts and provided, I suppose, the equivalent of 16 or maybe 32 bits.



    so. . . $1.50 / 4 bytes = $393216 per MB



  • Reply 7 of 18
    1991 4mb ~$250...
  • Reply 8 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hardeeharhar View Post


    1991 4mb ~$250...



    Heh. I bought a 16MB strip of RAM in about 1996 for $300. I think I still have the "giant" 10 GB hard drive I bought for multitrack recording.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    palterpalter Posts: 98member
    I know it's not memory but you didn't buy memory, which would've been core, in 1969.



    I bought a 1MB hard drive cartridge for $100. (For anyone who remembers DEC, it was an RK01 cartridge. It was the same cartridge as that used in an IBM 1130.) I was the first person to buy one, according to the DEC salesperson.



    This was a cartridge that you loaded into a disk drive. It was, if I remember correctly, about 14 inches in diameter.
  • Reply 10 of 18
    The first computer I ever really played with (besides installing ram) had 32 MB of ram standard which was approximately half the size of the hard drive on my first computer...
  • Reply 11 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hardeeharhar View Post


    The first computer I ever really played with (besides installing ram) had 32 MB of ram standard which was approximately half the size of the hard drive on my first computer...



    Wouldn't it be nice if that ratio was true today...
  • Reply 12 of 18
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    My first personal computer was an amiga 2000. I bought the HD option : 20 MB HD and the controller for 1500 $
  • Reply 13 of 18
    16 kilobyte module for TIMEX Sinclair 100 ran me (a hard-working high-schooler) a whopping $50!! or ~$3100/Mb back in what, '83?



    Then maxxed out my Mac Plus to 4Mb for about $250 in '90 or so.. .
  • Reply 14 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by getmeanespresso View Post


    16 kilobyte module for TIMEX Sinclair 100 ran me (a hard-working high-schooler) a whopping $50!! or ~$3100/Mb back in what, '83?



    Then maxxed out my Mac Plus to 4Mb for about $250 in '90 or so.. .



    I had a friend who had a Timex Sinclair 1000 around then (1983? 84?) Man. That thing was awesome. We couldn't understand why, when my TI-99/4A modem called his house, his computer didn't answer and say something like "would you like to play a game?"
  • Reply 15 of 18
    A modem in those days? Now *THAT* was out of my budget.
  • Reply 16 of 18
    midwintermidwinter Posts: 10,060member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by getmeanespresso View Post


    A modem in those days? Now *THAT* was out of my budget.



    I seem to remember it not being that much (maybe $50?). I just remember nearly going broke on cassette tapes to store programs on!
  • Reply 17 of 18
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by midwinter View Post


    So, old-timers. I ask: what was the most money you ever spent for less than one MB of memory?



    As a kid (ca. 1982) I mowed yards for months to buy a 32KB expansion card for my TI-99/4A (~$200).



    I still remember my brother spending US$500 to get a 16KB S-100 bus memory expansion card for his old SOL-20 (which still works, by the way!).
  • Reply 18 of 18
    I was only ever moderately successful at being able to write to or read from cassette tapes - I think that frustration led to my eventual mothballing the Sinclair for nearly 24 years. I pulled it out this past summer, dusted off the req'd video adapters & cables, and it booted right up. Unfortunately, it (along with the Mac Plus & its 40Mb extHD) was part of the Great-Make-Room-for-Baby-Purge of '06.
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